Saturday, November 18, 2006

Go, Bucks, Go!

This is my first post about sports ever, but I must show solidarity with my dear old dad and his alma mater. According to the Ohio State University Web site:

ESPN has called the Ohio State/Michigan game the greatest rivalry in sports history — and for good reason. The competition is so fierce that some historians think it's a carryover of the Toledo War, a 19th century boundary dispute between the states of Ohio and Michigan. The teams have played since 1897 — once, in a Horseshoe so snowy the game was nicknamed the "Snow Bowl."

In an e-mail my uncle sent yesterday, he wrote, "People here in Columbus are going nuts as you might imagine. There are lines out the door and down the street of the Buckeye stores."

All you need to know is this: Everything you have ever heard about the Ohio State-Michigan rivalry is true.

It is true that the late Ohio State coach Woody Hayes, who did more to pump up the negative feelings in the rivalry than any man, refused to fill up his car in the state of Michigan.

It is true that in 1950, the teams played through a blizzard with 29 inches of snow and more than 50,000 fans sat through it. Michigan's Chuck Ortmann punted 24 times, and the Wolverines won 9-3, despite failing to make a first down. Buckeyes coach Wes Fesler quit a few days later. Ohio State hired the little-known Hayes away from Miami (Ohio).

It is true that Hayes sometimes bunked his team in Toledo on the night before a game in Ann Arbor so the Buckeyes could sleep on Ohio ground.

It is true that, by state law, the Franklin County (Ohio) Board of Elections is supposed to begin counting the provisional ballots cast in this month's 15th Congressional District race on Nov. 18. Rep. Deborah Pryce leads challenger Mary Jo Kilroy by 3,536 votes. However, the board will not begin to count the votes until Nov. 19 so that the counters may watch the Ohio State-Michigan game.

It is true that the lowest-priced ticket available on StubHub on Thursday, for a seat on the corner of the end zone, on the 41st row of the upper deck, would have set you back $530. Binoculars extra.

"Legends are made in this game," Ohio State senior guard T.J. Downing said this week. "Every guy knows they have a chance to go down in the record books and make history."

8 Comments:

I was talking with Anna this morning, who was at your parents' house so Matt could watch the game with your dad...she said Ben gets really excited when football is on, and throws down his little Nerf football and raises his hands and says "Da Da!" (which in Ben-speak most likely translates as "Touchdown!")

As a fellow non-sports person, I am quite impressed that you devoted an entire blog post to football! ;-P